Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "Virgin Soil Upturned" : A Review

 

Sholokhov’s novel Virgin Soil Upturned shows the phase of collectivisation of agriculture  in 1930s in the  then Soviet Union. Davidov is sent to achieve total collectivisation to a village Gremyachy Log. . he along with Nagulnov and others persuades the farmers to go into collectivisation .  The farmers who are initially reluctant agree to it .  But the process is not smooth as the former white guards and sympathisers of Kulaks try to put spokes in the process to fail the experiment. Yakov Lukich plays a dual role in acting as expert in agricultural affairs and covertly aiding general Polovtsev  planning to start a rebellion against the soviet power. They even kill Khoprov and his wife thinking that the former would reveal their treacherous past. Razmyotnov. Maidannikov ,Shchukar, Lubishkin, Demid , the silent   support collectivisation and kulak families such as  are sent away. Nagulnov adopts an aggressive line and collectives even livestock but later he has to admit his mistake and return poultry, in the story the man-woman relations also form a parallel plot. Nagulnov’ wife Lushka take sup with Timofei, a son of Kulak and hardly cares about what others think. Davidov acts as a facilitator and zealot in solving problems arising out of reluctance of farmers and  impetuosity of Nagulnov  in hastening collectivisation. He does not approve of il treatment of women . General Polovtsev’s attempts to rouse Cossacks fail when they come to know from Stalin’s letter that collectivisation can go as per the cooperation of the farmers.

The village gets slowly transformed and faces many hiccups in moving towards Collectivization. The class war has not subsided but taken a different turn and bureaucrats are hard pressed to meet the targets. The Cossacks known for their  martial valour and rebellious spirit  turn slowly  towards collective  agriculture.

The problems in drawing people towards collectivization are portrayed in a vivid manner. The poor farmers were enthusiastic, the middle level farmers rather reluctant and kulaks were hostile either openly or covertly . the peasants feel it hard to part with their land and live stock. Many resorted to killing of their live stock posing problems to the organizers. They had to be refrained from  lightering their livestock. Nagulnov’s  hard approach has not succeeded whereas Vanyusha’s amicable  approach convinced even the most reluctant,  once Stalin’s letter criticizing left deviation came to be known, the farmers come and demand their land and livestock back. Nagulnov has come under criticism . 

Sholokhov’s woman characters are assertive and rebellious. Razmyotnov’s wife Marina cares no man and takes away her land and starts ploughing. Lubishkin and others who try to intervene are intimidated by her strength and will power . Nagulnov’s wife Lushka whom he divorces cares a jot for social and sexual  mores that constrain her and mocks Davidov for his reluctance to postpone taking of her hand till after sowing and her former husband  Nagulnov for neglecting her in the name of world revolution.

Reading all this after nearly a century shows  a village in a different era and how it struggles to come to terms with changing fortunes of Soviet power. The iron hand of State keeps people to play safe or murmuring and they find it difficult to change themselves to  a anew situation.

Party leadership calls Nagulnov and charges him with left deviation and expels him from the party. His plea regarding his past service is no regarded and he says that he would approach regional committee. Meanwhile in Gremyachy Log Village things become hot and the villagers, particularly women refuse to give awa seed grain to the collective farm of Yarskoi. The fury of women leads to attack on Razmyotnov, Davidov and others and they attempt to open the barn to take back their rain. Grandad Shchukar ‘s relating of his childhood experiences and his getting outwitted by a gypsy in purchasing a mare provide humorous relief to this serious novel of  class struggle that takes new forms in its intermingling with personal animosities.

The novel shows the trials and tribulations faced in collectivization . Makar Nagulnov and Davidov  slowly convince the people, join new members  in the party and try to capture saboteurs like Yakov Lukich  and officers of old regime   Polovtsev and  Latyevsky.  whom he shelters. Davidov agrees to marry Varya, joins her in an agricultural college for training and comes back to the village Gremyachy Log.   In the attempt to capture the enemies of revolution , Davidov and Nagulnov are killed. The culprits are later caught and duly punished. Varya comes back to take car of her family and grandad Shchukar and other party men such as Razmyontov  and Maidannikov are filled with sorrow.  Razmyontov sees beyond the horizon  ‘’the sky was ablaze with scarlet flame and , wakening nodding  Nature to fresh life, the last storm of that year broke in a majestic fury , as if at the height of Summer.”               

A Review of Sashi Tharoor’s Nehru : The Invention of India

 

Sashi Tharoor’s work, Nehru : The Invention of India  gives an amiable as well as an objective portrait of Nehru. Nehru’s evolution from an indifferent  youth to passionate patriot to national  leader to  become the  first prime minister of India . He has discovered India through his writings ,  experiences and international outlook which made him an outstanding leader. Motilal Nehru and other members of his family joined Nehru in national movement and the father recognised early the man of destiny in him. Nehru gave up an aristocratic life style in favour of life of hardships which moulded his character in to a fiery nationalist . To him Gandhi was a father figure .Though his scepticism made him doubt Gandhi’s political judgements, he came round in the end. He was a democrat to the core and wrote an anonymous article against himself in which he opposed personality cult. His secularism, Socialist ideas leading to introduction of  planning in independent India and his balancing through non-aligned movement in the era of cold war gave him a lot of recognition on the world stage. But Tharoor criticizes his emphasis on  the public sector which was finally given up in favour of privatization in 1990’s by the government of Late  P.V. Narsimha Rao-led Congress government. Tharoor ‘s  beautiful and captivating style offers  an intimate and warm  profile of the champion democracy who refused to shake hands with Fascism and corresponded with chief ministers of the States in the interests of federalism. Though Chinese turnaround  and a war lost caused him a lot of anguish to him who supported China before and after its independence for its liberation and rightful place in the UN. His relations with his colleagues such as Patel, Bose, Rajendra Prasad, Ambedkar are cordial despite differences in their  approach. Nehru treaded a middle ground between the Right and the Left and did his best to retain the unity of various groups in the party. He could not but accept Partition forced by the British but he never compromised regarding secularism and remained a beacon of hope to lay foundation for industrialization of India. He experienced an intense loneliness as an individual but dedicated his entire life for the glory of India and upholding the principle of unity in diversity. His Kashmir policy attracted a  lot of criticism but he never believed in theocratic approach to the problem and His failures if any were due to excessive trust in others . He evinced a passionate desire for  international peace in the era of cold war in which nuclear threat loomed large.                            

Rereading Barrister Parvateesam After Four Decades

 

Barrister Parvateesam is a novel that delights as well as instructs. It uses humour to expose cultural differences between the east and the West. Written a century ago , it still is highly readable although it language seems somewhat remote now but relevant at the time of writing .

In the first   part we find Parvateesam in his childhood , school life, adolescence in which he  joins nationalist movement to the cost of education resulting in failure in studies and  later decision to go  abroad to become a barrister. It is the most humorous part depicting pranks in school days, competition for place in merit order and initially he comes out on flying colours. His father chides him for failure  and asks him to look after agriculture. Then Parvateesam leaves his village without  informing his parents. His train journey shows many humorous incidents from taking ticket, tying his bundle to chain used to stop the train, use of washroom . When he gets down in Madras he haggles with cart drivers, changes  his hairstyle, buys  sundry things which are needed in England , goes to a shopping mall and falls while trying to walk on tiles instead of on carpet. On board steamer to Colombo to Marseilles, he faces troubles due to his vegetarianism, sea sickness and uncertainity about his future.                

In the second part written after forty six years at the behest of Narla Venkateswara Rao and Puranam Subramanya Sarma  , the reputed editors  of Andhra Jyoti , the novelist  shows subtle humour arising out of cutural clash. Parvateesam reached London and was fortunate to have  a friend like Menen and later Raju to allay is fears in the beginning stage.  Menen familiarizes him with life in England taking him to otels. Picture houses and explaining intricacies of social behaviour. Raju helps Parvateesam a lot. When Parvateesam joins Barrister at law In Edinburgh university, Raju helps  him find a residence, familiarizes the apt  behaviour , takes him to  picture houses  and familiarizes him with games like golf. Parvateesam soon learns things quickly , becomes a good player of golf and earns name whne he recites Telugu poems in the presence of  Anant  Kumara swamy . Duggirala Gopala Krishnaiah, later a veteran freedom movement leader appreciates him a lot .  Parvateesam’s experiences in his rented house with his land lady and her two daughters as a good soul. He puts up with their pranks and takes them to see plays .  his love with a  Scottish girl shows him as a young man given to emotions but prudent enough not to cause nay suffering to his family. He realises his limitations and bids her farewell with much anguish. While on return journey, he and other passengers pass through a perilous journey due to the world war going on at the time.  In the part we find Parvateesam growing into a man of good manners. Knowledge, responsibility and unblemished  moral sense. Humour comes out in misunderstanding new cultural norms . Two examples are that Paravateesam when invited to a party feels shy to ask for washroom in host’s house and urinates at the street cornet and even discloses it thoughtlessly. He also takes to task one new comer from India who goes to an evening  party in the morning itself and wants to stay there even in the night without bothering about inconvenience to his hosts.                   

In part three, we find Parvateesam’s return to his native place, the innocent questions by the curious villagers about his life and education there . It is like the coming back of Ulysses. Here the novelist describes the foreign returnee’s reflections, loneliness , agreeing for  arranged marriage thanks to the trick by his friend and well wisher Raju . The protagonist enjoys reunion with his parents , their love and affection and initial reluctance to tie the knot and final succumbing to tradition. The story is told in a style of subtle humour. Paravteesam goes to Madras and meets eminent lawyers such as Narayana Murty and Tanguturi  Prakasam( the real character in Andhra history) and becomes a practising  lawyer in high court . He also gets his wife Saraswati educated .He gains name in a short span  but both of them  he slowly gets attracted to nationalist movement, meet stalwart leaders like Duggirala Gopalakrishnaiah   at the cost of his practice and economic status. He relates many humorous anecdotes in lawyering.  He gets very active in nationalist movement  , finds the increasing suppression of the people in movement by the  British , gets disillusioned by lack of ethics in lawyering  practice and undergoes  even jail term in the cause of freedom movement. At last he goes back to his native place, refuses his father-in-law’s advice to carry on his practice and decides to listen to his father who wants to take care of their agricultural lands. We find a sort of parallel between this part and Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao’s ‘Chaduvu’ . The difference is that Sundaram’s saga has completely happened in India where as Parvateesam is a foreign returnee. But both of them have got influenced by traditional mores and also  national movement . Their education has not turned them into careerists but as people who responded to the call of the nation.  

The novel has a few things which are  more  politically incorrect  these days. His reference to nonvegetarian food as ‘malakoodu’ and depicting the reaction of the other  customers at   his entry  in a  hotel ‘as if they saw an untouchable amidst brahmin meal’ in the first part. But this only reflects the bias of the novelist  prevailing at the time  and even now casteism has not been eradicated completely from  our social system. The travails of Parvateesam are reflection of conflicts faced by the    middle class and upper caste  Indian youth  caught in the cultural conflict between the East and the West a century ago.

 

                       

Sundaram's Anguish in Kodavaiganti Kutumbarao's 'Chaduvu'

 

In Kutumbarao’s Chaduvu , the character of Sundaram , his experiences in school, children’s pranks with teachers bring back the memories of one’s childhood. Sundaram is worried over his place in merit in his class, his interaction with Sivaiah , the child from the family of makers of mats , the difficulties in buying notes, comparison with  his classmate  Krishna Murty  . his mother’s admonishments regarding his demands for note books, his gradual understanding regarding their precarious economic statues and his sympathy for the other poor and unfortunate children show how a sensibility is moulded gradually in the background of 1930’s.  his teacher Sitappa was a a conservative and an admirer of Bal Gangadhar tilak and when the latter died, Sitappa was filled with sorrow and taught nothing in the class. Another teacher  Sambaiah infused in boys hatred towards the British rule. Sundaram’s  maternal uncle Seshagiri turned into a nationalist, his son Narusu into a singer in a drama troupe  and a counterpart to studious Sundaram. Sundaram worries over the sudden widowhood of Sakuntala but his sympathies stopped short of  love. Narusu married Sundaram’s sister Janaki and Sundaram himself married Lakshmi. His middle class  shyness makes him put up with rituals which he did not like much . he could not do much when Narusu asked him to arrange a drama performance for his troupe but resented when it was held due to initiative by Narusu through help from hostellers whom Narusu approached.   Later he comes across Sakuntala who has remarried . He writes a story the same night but tears it the next morning. We see Sundaram as a character more in reaction to changing conditions which impact him rather than as a dynamic personality.  He again writes a story of remarriage of  a widow which gets published . He attends a Congress meeting in Madras  and later  joins Benares Hindu  university , gets into touch with literature and with nationalist movement. His uncle Seshagiri who does a jail term n the movement does not want this son Narusu to undergo the same and Sundaram also finds  opportunism of some who evade arrest  Sundaram also observes the suppression of the  nationalist movement by the police. Sundaram fails to write exams and get his degrees due to economic difficulties.  The Great Depression finds Sundaram without job and money but spends his time in reading books from municipal library. When he sees his wife Lakshmi teaching alphabets to their child , he remembers his own experience twenty years back and feels happy.

In the novel the reader finds a fragment of life during 1920-35 in India when society has found itself changing under the impact of nationalist movement and ne found love for education.  It also shows the middle class destiny with the tryst and Sundaram represents the aspiring middle class whose ambitions have been thwarted by the whirlpool of changes in the period. It is a tribute to the ardent desire for education unmindful of its worldly prospects and  the social and psychological  anguish of the middle class boy  Sundaram .         

A Sorrowful Death of Prem Chand's Nirmala

 

Prem Chand’s novel ‘Nirmala’  depicts the struggle  of a young woman married to a middle-aged man Totaram, a lawyer. Her earlier engagement to a doctor was cancelled by her prospective in-laws when her father died abruptly. Her life with the lawyer  Totaram proves colourless and insipid as her husband has failed to cater to her emotional needs. Nirmala gradually becomes  a responsible housewife and Rukmini , the sister of Munshi Totaram resents the loss of her hold in the house.   Moreover he suspects her relationship with his eldest son Mansaram from his  earlier marriage. He joins Mansaram in a hostel and the pure and once vibrant  young man withers and dies when he realizes his father’s unfounded suspicions. Nirmala is devastated. She develops friendship with Sudha, the wife of the doctor who spurned her match earlier.   Munshi Totaram’s second  son Ziyaram turns a prodigal son and even steals jewels from his own home and meets untimely death. Siyaram, the youngest scion of the family goes under the influence of Sadhus and abandons his home . Doctor Sinha who turns repentant over his refusal of Nirmala earlier arranges  her sister Krishna’s marriage with his brother.  At one point he expresses his passion for Nirmala in the absence of Sudha but Nirmala  rushes out . Sudha comes to know of her husband’s misbehavior and Doctor commits suicide out of guilt and shame. Munshi Totaram who realizes his folly of second marriage to a young girl Nirmala and leaves home and  turns into a Sanyasi. Nirmala falls  severely ill and dies not withstanding the care by Rukmini. When Nirmala dies a poor  orphan leaving her baby with Rukmini. When people are hesitating to perform her funeral rites comes Munshi Totaram, now a  Sadhu. This novel is a testimony of the novelists’ skill in portraying the incompatibility of marriage between an old woman and a young woman, the psychological complexity  of individuals caught in the clash between economic turmoil and emotional emptiness. The death of Nirmala delights  the reader with a subtle humour in characterization of different characters and a deep   sorrow of  at the death of Nirmala, the pure and tender  flower that fades and dies for no fault of hers.                                                              

Prem Chand's Brave Women in 'Karma Bhoomi '

 Prem Chand is a prolific writer on  profound themes and in unearthing psychological complexity of characters . His novel , Karma Bhoomi which is written in the backdrop of nationalist movement shows the characters like Amarkant, Salim, Sukhda, Sakina , Munni , Naina, Lala Samar kant . Amarkant , an idealist youth who is  starving of love and respect grows estranged from Sukhda, his  rich and haughty wife. He falls in love with Sakina, a Muslim girl but runs away to escape public censure. He turns into an teacher, friend and leader of the marginalized in a far away village and tries to purge himself through hard life but develops a soft corner for Munni, a victim of rape by the British soldiers. Earlier Amarkant ,his close friend Salim and their mentor teacher Santhakumar stand by Munni who stabs her tormentors, faces a case , wins with popular support but abandons her husband and child and goes far way in shame and guilt and to save family honour. Amarkant leaves his father Samarkant , his profit- mongering father, his wife Sukhda and child and goes away. He courts jail in the struggle for the marginalized and Salim, the practical rich youth becomes a collector but relinquishes his post  under the influence of  Lala Samarkant who has a change of heart and turns generous  when his son, daughter in law  go to jail and his daughter Naina who was shot dead  while leading a march of the poor for sites for houses against Municipality resolutions. The struggle changes Sukhda, her mother Renuka , Sakina , her mother Pathani and Munni into fighters for emancipation of the poor. Prem Chand’s greatness lies in portraying the weaknesses of the idealist characters and strengths of the women who are initially thought of and treated as such by their families  as ‘abalas’ (weaklings’). Male characters who take pride in their struggle recognise their vulnerabilities in quest of name and leadership. The courage, deep understanding, love , kindness , death-defying leadership qualities  shown by women come out vividly in the novel. The pathetic life, fighting spirit, hopes and fears , sacrifice of the oppressed are  portrayed in a realistic manner. Urdu writer  Prem Chand,  Bengali writer Sarat Babu and Telugu writer Chalam can be considered as the writers who understood the heart of women caught in the conflict between the traditional and modern democratic values such as freedom, equality and solidarity.   

Rushdie's Imperishable Empire of Words in Victory City

 

Salman Rushdie’s Victory City continues the undaunted artist spirit of the novelist who combines history, magical realism and blending of fiction and facts in enchanting language. The 'Bisnaga' empire,  a corruption of ‘Vijayanagar’ is seen in its glory and decline and fall  through the eyes of Pampa Kampana. The miraculous beginning, the  change of dynasties of rulers, intricate palace coups , politically convenient l marriages, the marriage of the east and the west, the glorious rule of Krishna Deva Raya , the flourishing of literature, the fortification of the empire, the struggle for gender equality, the prophecy of future, the ingratitude of the king towards his chief Minister Timmarusu and Pampa Kampana, the Progenitor and loving partner and immortal beauty  who rescues and recluses herself at the end of her life. Her work Jayaparajaya  records the history of the empire, the glorious golden age recedes and a melancholic ambience prevails. It is the result of inefficient final rulers like Achyuta Raya and Aliya Ram Raya. Cities and Empires rise and fall but  the words which  offer different narratives   never die. It is a novel of a medieval empire and a warning to  modern India when exclusivism reigns and integration of cultures disintegrates and power games outdo  morality of  a culture or  civilization. in the Past the ancient civilizations such as the Greek , Roman and Egyptian disappeared through internecine warfare, savage attacks by the barbarians and  the rise of new religions. The lesson is that humanity is more significant than erecting walls and creating rigid boundaries  among nations of the world.